While some MEPs questioned how we came from a fully-fledged trade pact to a trade war in the space of 12 months, the only real note of discord came, predictably, from Nigel Farage, who said, to widespread disbelief, that the UK could and should “negotiate its own, separate deal with the US within 48 hours”.

Then, in another show of solidarity, senior EU officials, EU capitals and MEPs told the UK this week that they fully stood by London as it reels from an attempted poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in the market town of Salisbury.

“We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the British people. It must be made clear that an attack against one EU & NATO country is an attack on all of us,” Guy Verhofstadt, the Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, tweeted, summing up the general sentiment.

We stand shoulder to shoulder with the British people. It must be made clear that an attack against one EU & NATO country is an attack on all of us. https://t.co/QfjvYKk9c6

The attack, which carried the hallmarks of the Russian secret police (remember Alexander Litvinenko in 2006?), also managed to unite the EU and Washington, despite the ticking bomb of steel tariffs.

In a joint statement, the United States, France and Germany formally backed Britain’s claims that Russia was likely to have been responsible for the attack.

But this solidarity does not mean that the issue of tougher sanctions against Moscow will make it to the agenda of next week’s European Summit. EU leaders know that Europe remains divided over how hard to push Putin.

A cautious ‘let’s establish the facts first’ approach is likely to prevail. After all, Realpolitik has always been a steady feature of doing business in Europe.

The Roundup

Imagine the delightful prospect of expecting a big juicy burger and ending up with a flat and badly made one – an anti-Brexit campaign went exactly there.

Weather alert systems, real-time communication and debit cards for refugees – humanitarian crisis management can be made more effective with the use of new technologies, Commissioner Christos Stylianides said in an interview with Euroefe.

In bullish projections, makers of natural gas vehicles expect their car fleet in Europe to multiply tenfold to 13 million vehicles in 2030. Read the interview with Andrea Gerini, the secretary general of NGVA Europe.

Two years after the Brussels attacks, the terrorist threat remains very real. There is room to beef-up security measures without creating a “police state” and maintaining respect for individual rights and liberties, argue Demir Murat Seyrek and Amanda Paul.

Look out for…

Foreign Affairs Council on Monday: Syria, Ukraine and the poisoning in the UK.